The decision by the NJSIAA to go to best of five sets for its state tournament games has been met with mixed approval statewide. One thing is for certain, for The Observer-area locals the change has created some incredibly dramatic finishes over the first two rounds.
First, in Wednesday’s first round of the North, Group 3 tournament, Belleville pulled off a wild 33-31, 23-25, 27-25, 24-26, 15-6 victory over Watchung Hills.
Two days later the quarterfinals produced two more five-set epics as Bloomfield upset Essex County champion Livingston, 21-25, 25-16, 17-25, 25-19, 18-16 in North, Group 4. Then, in perhaps the craziest of them all, local rivals Harrison and Lyndhurst squared off with the Blue Tide prevailing, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21, 20-25, 18-16, in a match that took more than two hours and left everyone both physically and emotionally drained.
“(When you go five sets), you don’t really know how it’s going to play out,” Harrison head coach Anthony Sabia said. “I could tell that physically we were tired, but mentally we were there. We were ready to go, even though maybe our bodies weren’t necessarily ready or willing. But we found a way.”
Harrison swept the season series with Lyndhurst, but the second matchup did not feature Golden Bears’ star outside hitter Jan Lesnicki due to injury, so Sabia expected a tight matchup the third time around.
Lesnicki, Lyndhurst’s all-time career leader in kills, showed why he is one of North Jersey’s top offensive players with 29 kills, three blocks and 23 digs. On the other side, Harrison’s Jonathan Petrillo nearly matched him with 22 kills, four blocks and 15 digs.
“The two of them going back and forth, it was very highly competitive in the match, but it was in the spirit of the sport,” said Sabia, noting that the Harrison-Lyndhurst rivalry in volleyball is friendlier than in other sports. “It was fun to watch them.”
In the fifth and deciding set, which is played to 15, Harrison led 14-11, but Lyndhurst staved off three potential match points to even it up at 14-all. The Blue Tide had additional match point opportunities at 15-14, and 16-15, but were again denied as an overpass landed in-between Petrillo and Gabriel Da Costa and just inside the line to tie it at 16.
Harrison finally put the upstart Bears away as Ryan Manini tipped a shot over for the kill that made it 17-16. Then, for match point, Da Costa, who hadn’t recorded a single kill all day, took advantage of a Lyndhurst overpass over the net and fired a shot off the Bears’ block and onto the floor for the clinching kill.
“When we won the match, it wasn’t excitement, it was just relief that this match (was over),” Sabia said. “It was just two hours and 13 minutes of two teams just slugging it out with each other.
Manini and Pedro Quezada finished with nine kills apiece, while Anas Oufrid added 23 assists for fourth-seeded Harrison (17-9), which now plays top-seeded Passaic Charter in the semifinals on Tuesday.
For Lyndhurst (17-8), Filoteo Mosca had 12 kills with 21 digs and Maks Dmochowski dished out 41 assists to go with four kills, six blocks and 21 digs.
Bloomfield (12-17), the 10th seed in North, Group 4, will play third-seeded Passaic Tech in the semifinals. Belleville, after its five-set classic in the first round, saw its season end with a loss to Bergen Catholic to finish the year 21-6. Kearny, North Arlington and Nutley all saw their seasons end in the first round on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in the state baseball tournament, Nutley has bounced back from a May swoon to win its first two North 1, Group 3 tournament games.
The Raiders needed some late-inning magic in the first round, defeating Cliffside Park, 2-1, in eight innings. Sean Feeley topped the 100 strikeout mark for the season after punching out 10 over seven innings before giving way to Kennan Bilotta, who pitched a scoreless eighth for the win. and both John Machtemes and Jowe Roque added a RBI.
There was far less drama in Friday’s home quarterfinal against Wayne Valley when Nutley’s offense erupted for 14 runs in a 14-3 mercy rule win.
Eugenio Roman, Chris Kovacs and Dominic Saladino had three RBI apiece with Saladino’s three-run home in the bottom of the fifth ending the game. Bilotta picked up his second win of the state tournament after striking out three over five innings.
Nutley travels to second-seed Ramapo in the semifinals on Wednesday.
The Raiders are the last local baseball team standing as Lyndhurst lost a walkoff heartbreaker to West Morris in the North 2, Group 2 quarterfinals on Friday. Two days earlier, Belleville, Kearny and North Arlington saw their seasons end in the first round.
The softball season ended for The Observer area on Thursday. Kearny’s Hudson County championship winning season ended when it was shutout, 4-0, by Bridgewater-Raritan in the North 2, Group 4 tournament to finish 22-2. Nutley, which at 18-10 had its most wins since 2022, saw its season end in the North 2, Group 3 quarterfinals with a loss to Cranford. Also falling in the quarterfinals was North Arlington, which at 14-9, enjoyed its best record since 2011. Belleville and Lyndhurst were defeated in the first round last Tuesday.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)